good day la

Wednesday night's 'X Factor' was something of a let-down after Michael Jackson night, but the Top 5 contestants performed a dance song and got to showcase their personalities with a self-selected song, which they only had 24 hours to prepare for.

'Good Day LA' correspondent Courtney Friel talked to the contestants as they reflected on the evening. Melanie Amaro, who sang Adele's 'Someone Like You' for the dance competition, chose Whitney Houston's 'When You Believe' for her next song. "After practicing this one song for so long, to be able to have to switch it around was a task," she told Frield. Although L.A. Reid called the choice safe, Simon pointed out the ridiculousness of thinking that any Whitney Houston song was safe to perform.

Gilles Marini came by 'Good Day LA' (weekdays, 9AM PT on Fox) to preview his 'Hot in Cleveland' guest-spot, in which he plays the captain of a gay cruise ship. But before he could get to that, Dorothy Lucey wanted to talk about Marini's recent guest spot on 'Modern Family, where Claire mistook him for being gay. "I was kind of metrosexual all the way until the end, where there's a big surprise," he explained.

Marini told a story about forgetting his lines while shooting a 'Cleveland' scene with Betty White. When he blanked on the dialogue, she quickly quipped, "Who cares when you look like that?" After that, he felt right back in his comfort zone. "It was actually a great experience," he said.

Tom Brokaw has been in the television news business since the 1960s, and he's seen the industry change drastically over the decades. On 'Good Day LA' (weekdays, 9AM PT on Fox) the legendary newsman discussed the vast quantity of news and information that's available in the modern media landscape, and gave his advice on how news consumers can best sift through all the noise.

Back when Brokaw was hosting the nightly news, the network evening news hosts were considered the arbiters of what an informed citizen needed to know. With so many more sources of information available today, Brokaw urged consumers of news to be discerning about what they listen to. "I think it requires the viewers to be much more vigilant on their own part, to take much more responsibility for where they get their news, what kind of news they get, what are the sources. They have to develop a filtration system, which is possible," he explained.

Jaime Pressly and Katie Finneran, the stars of the new Fox sitcom 'I Hate My Teenage Daughter,' stopped by 'Good Day LA' (weekdays, 9AM PT on Fox) to preview their show, which premieres on Wednesday at 9:30 PM ET. The two play best friends who were bullied in high school, and now as grown-up single moms are horrified to find they've raised their daughters to be just like the mean girls that used to torture them.

Pressly described the dynamic between the mom and daughter characters. "Growing up, we clearly were not in the 'in' crowd and we were not the 'cool peeps' either so we want our kids to have everything we never did." Finneran added, "We're just trying to get their love. Win their love, buy their love, steal their love."

Last week, the 15-year-old 'X Factor' rapping phenom Astro found himself in the Bottom Two of Simon Cowell's talent competition. When the judges announced he'd have to go head-to-head with Stacy Francis to save his spot on the show, he threw a mini temper-tantrum, refused to perform another song and shed a few tears.

As it turns out, the emotional incident has helped Astro grow his online fanbase. He told 'Good Day L.A.' (weekdays, 9AM ET on Fox) that after the rebellious episode, he picked up 20,000 fans on his Facebook page. And while he's apologized for the episode and is trying to put it behind him, he's still skeptical that he deserved to be in the Bottom Two. "Something went on behind the scenes in the show ... I don't see how you can have the most followers out of all the contestants, the most views on YouTube and get voted into the Bottom Two."

When Astro and Stacy Francis landed in the bottom two of Thursday night's 'The X-Factor,' they were expected to sing for survival in a final showdown. But Astro came out he said he didn't think he needed to perform, which had Simon Cowell visibly upset.

After the show,'Good Day LA''s (weekdays 9amPT on Fox) Terri Seymour asked Simon what was going on between him and Astro's mentor, L.A. Reid during the break. "He said to me that he's not going to sing. I said, "Well, he's got to,'" Cowell reported. Terri then asked Paula if she was shocked by Astro's attitude, and she put the incident into perspective, saying, "We have to remember that he is a boy still and I mean, he's a genius at what he does, but you saw the boy in him when a tear rolled down his cheek."

Simon Cowell was not impressed with Lakoda Rayne's recent rock performance on 'The X Factor.' The group did a mash-up of the Outfields 'Your Love' and Fleetwood Mac's 'Go Your Own Way,' and Cowell told them, "I thought tonight, overall was a complete mess, if you want my honest opinion."

'Good Day LA' (weekdays, 9AM PT on Fox) caught up with the girls afterward to ask them about the harsh criticism. "Simon being mean is not rare form, Simon being nice is" Paige Ogle said. Cowell seemed to hate everything about the performance, from the set design to the choreography, which he called "gimmicky." But Dani Knights defended their choices by saying, "It was Rock Week, you know, like there had to be dancers. It had to be a banging performance."

Although Paula Abdul seemed to be torn up after sending home the Stereo Hogzz on Thursday night's 'The X Factor,' the guys were in high spirits when they visited 'Good Day LA' (weekdays, 9AM PT on Fox). They talked about comforting Lakoda Rayne as they shared the chopping block, since they had been there before, and complimented the remarkable talents of Rachel Crow and Astro.

The Stereo Hogzz might not know exactly what their future holds, but if the public reaction to their elimination is any indication, it looks pretty bright. "We couldn't even get out of the building yesterday," Trae Badd said. "As soon as they said we were off, it was people all up in our face giving us cards."

It seems pretty well established by now that Charlie Sheen is going to be Charlie Sheen, and nothing is really going to be able to make him change who he is and what he does for a good time. Denise Richards talked about how she's come to terms with that, and how she deals with him now, on 'Good Day LA' (Weekdays, 9AM PT on FOX).

She's come to accept his lifestyle and appears to simply work around it. "When he likes to entertain and have fun, he's having fun, and when he's not then we see him," she said of her and the kids she shares with Sheen.

Max Greenfield plays Schmidt on Fox's new hit sitcom, 'New Girl,' but he's cool being known as Zooey Deschanel's TV roommate. When he stopped by 'Good Day LA' (weekdays, 9AM PT on Fox), all the 'Good Day LA' crew wanted to talk about was the adorkable Zooey, and Greenfield was totally fine with it.

Steve Edwards tried to get a rise out of Greenfield by saying, "When she was here, she said she was the only reason" the show's a hit. But Greenfield didn't bite. "Well look, I'm not going to argue with that," he said. Although he's also had recurring roles on Fox's other hit shows 'Ugly Betty' and 'Veronica Mars,' he's grateful for 'New Girl';s success. "Everyone involved knows how seldom that happens," he said.

Just as the main characters in his new show 'Up All Night' are trying to stay hip after having kids, Nick Cannon told 'Good Day LA' (weekdays, 9AM PT on Fox) that he's determined to do the same after having twins with Mariah Carey. As if to immediately disprove his point, he led the hosts in an impromptu, awkward drum session. "It's like 'Stomp the Yard' up in here!" he joked.

Jillian Barberie told Cannon that she saw his 'Up All Night' co-star Maya Rudolph out with her kids, and noted that although her character Ava struggles to relate to children, Rudolph seems to be living a life more like Christina Applegate's character Reagan.

"We all are," Cannon said. "Everybody has new kids on that show. It's crazy." Rudolph had her third child with director Paul Thomas Anderson in July, Will Arnett and Amy Poehler just had their second child last year and Christina Applegate and boyfriend Martyn LeNoble had her first child in January.

Dr. Paul Nassif and Adrienne Maloof, aka "The Bickersons," stopped by 'Good Day LA' (weekdays 9AM PT on Fox) on Friday. The couple's earned that nickname because of their constant arguing on Bravo's 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,' and in true form, they were only a couple of minutes into the interview when they went at it again.

When they were asked about the disastrous dinner party they hosted on the Season Two premiere, Paul said the problems started early because of his golf game. But Adrienne quickly corrected him, saying, "No, it wasn't about the golf ... But anyway ..."

Anderson Cooper was the moderator, in name anyway, of the most recent Republican Debate, which got contentious and personal as Rick Perry took numerous shots at front-runner Mitt Romney. Cooper went on 'Good Day LA,' (weekdays, 7AM PT on Fox) and explained how the debate went from his perspective.

"It caught a lot of us by surprise, just the personal nature of some of the attacks," he said. "They're not children, it's not my job to jump in and say, 'Don't do the strategy that you want to do," he continued, perhaps pushing back on the criticism that he should have done more to step in-between some of the jabs being thrown.

Nancy Travis was all smiles when she stopped by 'Good Day LA' (Weekdays 9AM PT on Fox) to talk about her new show with Tim Allen, 'Last Man Standing.' She talked about what a good time she's having with the show, and she's not the only one. With the show averaging more than 11 million viewers after three episodes, it looks like the audience and ABC are having a good time, too.

We did laugh at one of her responses. When she was told, "You do not play that standard common-sense wife with the buffoon husband," Travis responded with, "No, I go after him and call him on his stuff." Which, of course, is the textbook definition of the common-sense wife with the buffoon husband.

Jonah Hill has a new cartoon comedy coming out on Fox called 'Allen Gregory,' but all is not well within the Fox family. Hill dropped by 'Good Day LA' (weekdays, 7AM PT on Fox) to preview the new show and also discussed his ongoing feud with 'Glee' star Matthew Morrison.

Hill wrote and voices 'Allen Gregory' (premieres Sun., Oct. 30, 8:30PM ET on Fox), whichfollows a genius, erudite seven-year-old who's just starting at public school. While Allen prefers to drink Pinot Grigio and watch Charlie Rose, his contemporaries are more into finger-painting. "In animation you can do things you can never do in live action, like I couldn't play a seven-year-old on TV, so we kind of thought that was cool and took it from there," Hill said.